Trial: Dragon “The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters.”
Major Points
I know that I am going to die, so I know that life is meaningless. "In a billion billion billion years, everything will have come and gone several times, in various forms. Even I will be gone. A certain man will absurdly kill me. A terrible pity-loss of a remarkable form of life. Conservationists will howl." (Dragon pg 70)
"For example, the apparent absence of change within a second of time tells nothing as to the change within a thousand years. Also, no appearance of change within a thousand years tells anything concerning what might happen in, say, a million years; and no apparent change within a million years tells anything about a million million years. We can extend this progression indefinitely; there is no absolute standard of magnitude. Any term in this progression is large compared to its predecessor and small compared to its successor" (Dragon pg 66)
The world will be destroyed.
"Lesson on lesson they've suffered through, recognizing, more profoundly each time, their indignity, shame, triviality. It will continue." (pg 122)
"Pick an apocalypse, any apocalypse. A sea of black oil and dead things. No wind. No light. Nothing stirring, not even an ant, a spider. A silent universe. Such is the end of the flicker of time, the brief, hot fuse of events and ideas set off, accidentally, and snuffed out, accidentally, by man. Not a real ending of course, nor even a beginning. Mere ripple in Time's stream." (Dragon pg 71)
Humans try to put facts together, tries to connect them together even though facts are isolated and totally different. They always try to find meanings."Connectedness is the essence of everything." (pg 64) "All pigs eat cheese. Old Snaggle is a pig. If Snaggle i ssick and refuses to eat, try cheese." Thisis syllogism.
Humans to concern about their beliefs, however Shaper saves the dubious and apprehensions. Humans find religion as reassurance themselves. "They have dim apprehensions that such propositions as 'God does not exist' are somewhat dubious at least in comparison with statements like 'All carnivorous cows eat meat.' That's where the Shaper saves them. Provide illusion of realityㅡputs together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness." (pg 65)
"They sense that, of course, from time to time; have uneasy feelings that all they live by is nonsense. They have a dim apprehensions that such propositions as 'God does not exist' are somewhat dubious at least in comparison with statements like 'All carnivorous cows eat meat.' That's where the Shaper saves them. Provides an illusion of reality-puts together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness. Mere tripe, believe me. Mere sleight-of-wits. He knows no more than they do about total reality-less, if anything works with the same old clutter of atoms, the givens of his time and place and tongue. But he spins it all together with harp runs and hoots, and they think what they think is alive, think Heaven loves them. It keeps them going-for what that's worth. As for myself, I can hardly bear to look." (Dragon pg 65)
Trial: Dragon“The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters.”
Major Points
I know that I am going to die, so I know that life is meaningless. "In a billion billion billion years, everything will have come and gone several times, in various forms. Even I will be gone. A certain man will absurdly kill me. A terrible pity-loss of a remarkable form of life. Conservationists will howl." (Dragon pg 70)
"For example, the apparent absence of change within a second of time tells nothing as to the change within a thousand years. Also, no appearance of change within a thousand years tells anything concerning what might happen in, say, a million years; and no apparent change within a million years tells anything about a million million years. We can extend this progression indefinitely; there is no absolute standard of magnitude. Any term in this progression is large compared to its predecessor and small compared to its successor" (Dragon pg 66)
The world will be destroyed.
"Lesson on lesson they've suffered through, recognizing, more profoundly each time, their indignity, shame, triviality. It will continue." (pg 122)
"Pick an apocalypse, any apocalypse. A sea of black oil and dead things. No wind. No light. Nothing stirring, not even an ant, a spider. A silent universe. Such is the end of the flicker of time, the brief, hot fuse of events and ideas set off, accidentally, and snuffed out, accidentally, by man. Not a real ending of course, nor even a beginning. Mere ripple in Time's stream." (Dragon pg 71)
Humans try to put facts together, tries to connect them together even though facts are isolated and totally different. They always try to find meanings."Connectedness is the essence of everything." (pg 64) "All pigs eat cheese. Old Snaggle is a pig. If Snaggle i ssick and refuses to eat, try cheese." Thisis syllogism.
Humans to concern about their beliefs, however Shaper saves the dubious and apprehensions. Humans find religion as reassurance themselves. "They have dim apprehensions that such propositions as 'God does not exist' are somewhat dubious at least in comparison with statements like 'All carnivorous cows eat meat.' That's where the Shaper saves them. Provide illusion of realityㅡputs together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness." (pg 65)
"They sense that, of course, from time to time; have uneasy feelings that all they live by is nonsense. They have a dim apprehensions that such propositions as 'God does not exist' are somewhat dubious at least in comparison with statements like 'All carnivorous cows eat meat.' That's where the Shaper saves them. Provides an illusion of reality-puts together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness. Mere tripe, believe me. Mere sleight-of-wits. He knows no more than they do about total reality-less, if anything works with the same old clutter of atoms, the givens of his time and place and tongue. But he spins it all together with harp runs and hoots, and they think what they think is alive, think Heaven loves them. It keeps them going-for what that's worth. As for myself, I can hardly bear to look." (Dragon pg 65)